Streaming media has been in use on the internet for over 10 years.  Intially the technology bar to edit, digitize and strem video was high.  Individuals and companies who wanted their video or movie viewable online had to purchase expensive software or outsource the production of the file and then employ the services of a streaming media hosting companies. 

Nowadays it is much easier thanks to the YouTube and the makers of video cameras.  With a camera costing around $500, an external microphone and good lighting, anyone can make a video of their product or service.  The simplest approach is to limit editing by shooting a demonstration of your product or conversation about your service.  As long as the content is meaningful, your customer will not care if you make a mistake or two in delivery.

Once the video is complete and digitally saved, simply upload it to YouTube.  Their site accepts many formats of video files and converts it to their FLV format, so don’t worry too much about the file type until a problem arises.  YouTube has many features including indexing the video (i.e. separating it in chapters) to make it easier for the viewers.  Within YouTube, it is important to add a title and description that includes keywords that will online searchers find the video.  A link from your company’s website can also be added to the video on YouTube.  Since it is becoming quite common for companies to make use of YouTube to host video content, online viewers of your website will be quite used to be redirected to YouTube.

I followed the above steps and was able to post multiple videos in the same day.  Already clients have responded that is much easier to understand how we conduct testing after watching our testing demonstrations posted on YouTube.  It also has increased our visibility on line for search engines.  What have your experiences been like with online video?

Jim Verzuh, Director of Marketing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.